A Blue Castle

My latest cartoon for New Scientist.

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I can relate to this on every level

u/Fine-Dog-9874

Cousin Stickles does have a bit of genuine concern for Valancy in her heart. (And she never did tell about the bannister!)

For Valancy's suit: I've only seen serge as related to military clothes, so I've always imagined that drab military olive green. Very in keeping with her family's dictims!

I want to see Lawyer Ferguson's expression when James asks him what can be done legally about Valancy being rude to relatives and getting a job.

This is it btw :) from here

When my mother forgets a word, she is the queen of coming up with new words. Words that would take a third National Treasure movie to fully decipher. I was talking to her yesterday, and she said this: “You know the time for los jibbities is coming up. You must be so excited!” Oh, is it time for los jibbities already? I must have missed it on my calendar. Are we celebrating something? “Of course! We should all be celebrating, shouldn’t we?” OK, so los jibbities is a happy thing. It’s not like something is giving you the heebie-jeebies, which would have been my one and only guess. “Los heebie-jeebies? Now you’re making things up...and this is my show.” You’re right. The time for los jibbities is coming up. Is this a season? “Yes, the season for love. The season for pride.” OK, los jibbities. “Yeah, sound it out.” Los…jibbities. LGBTs! “Sí, mira cuz you’re gay!” “You couldn’t just say pride season? You couldn’t just… *laughs*

[from: Błękitny Zamek, Prószyński & S-ka 2000, illustrated by Katarzyna Karina Chmiel; all ilustrations from this edidion can be found here!]

She’s the great-granddaughter of a legendary hockey player, she bounced back and made the national team after breaking both her wrists in college, she lost gold at the Olympics and started a charity about it, she married another legendary hockey player that she fell in love with when they saw a shooting star that no one else did when they were skinny dipping with their team, they won gold at the Olympics and then had the royal wedding of Canadian women’s hockey and they have the cutest dog ever, shes alternate captain on a professional team with her wife who is the captain, they play on a line together, when she was the only captain/alternate captain not injured she led her team to first place, she leads the league in shorthanded goals this season, she scored a goal one time on her wife’s birthday when the clock showed both of their numbers, she had her knee popped back in its socket on the ice (probably) with 8 seconds left in the game then went on to assist the game winning goal in overtime that same game, she won the Walter cup with holes in her socks, anyway shes so fucking cool

i wish maud been able to write a book or two about women who choose to stay single and are glad they did because i think she believed in that whether she'd admit it or not.

i just feel bad for her because if anyone would have benefited from staying single and filling her life with friends and good work and nature, it's maud. but she doesn't seem able to even explore that in her fiction, and i find that heartbreaking.

I wonder if it was only side characters because a publisher would pressured her to marry them off if they were the heroine, or if it was a deliberate choice on her part? (Because it didn't align to her idea of a novel's structure, it wasn't a lived experience she could relate to, it wasn't a topic of interest - so many possibilities!)